unavailable dates- will i be penalised

[Imogen23]

Can someone advise me please.  a guest has made a request for June and some of the dates he requested I had not blocked off some of the days which were unavailable.  I explained to the potential guest but will I be penalised for not accepting the booking and not replying within 24 hours.. can someone help..  thank you

[Laura2592]

If its a request you can reject it without being penalized. It does happen that Airbnb allows guests to try and book unavailable dates. Just reject the booking and say the dates are not available. Its weird for the guests to be able to book days that are legitimately blocked, so you can always say its a calendar glitch.

[Helen3]

@Imogen23  didn't say the dates were blocked but that she forgot to block them @Laura2592 

@Imogen23  just deny the request and go in and block out those dates.

[Laura2592]

@Helen3aha. Sorry. I read that wrong.

@Imogen23you can indeed deny the request.

[Imogen23]

guys you are awesome.. thank you for your support...  in covid times having anything affecting your rating is stressful.

I would like to confirm it was not a booking request just an inquiry.. 

I have since blocked out the dates..  but i just wondered if my response rate or acceptance rate will be affected.. 

I think from what you are saying is that I do not need to decline an inquiry and I will not be penalised for messaging and not sending pre approval or declining the booking.

thank you again airbnb community @Helen3  @Laura2592  @Pat271 

[Sarah977]

@Imogen23  Right. An inquiry only needs to be replied to within 24 hours. You don't need to either pre-approve or decline. Just apologize that you'd been busy and forgot to block dates when you couldn't host.

You'll probably get pesky reminders to pre-approve the inquiry, which can make hosts who don't know better feel pressured, but you can just ignore those.

[Helen3]

Hi @Imogen23 

for future reference do have a look at the Airbnb Help website really good Q&As around the basics for managing your listing and how Airbnb works. 

[Imogen23]

@Helen3  I did l actually ook at the Q&As before posting the question.. but it wasnt clear to me and some people's responses confused Enquiry and Request .. and also as it was my fault for not blocking the dates ..

I've been a superhost for years and previously didnt worry about the odd decline but now as there are fewer bookings around I am much more careful..  but I do thank you for your helpful comments, sometimes i just get lost so posting here gives me a direct and relevant response to specific  question from the experts 

Best wishes 

[Pat271]

It’s not good to decline booking requests, but as far as I know, there is no penalty per se, as long as you don’t make a habit of it. It might affect your search placement if it is perceived that you aren’t a serious host.  It’s important, though, that you do reply with an explanation within 24 hours.  Not doing so will affect your response rate statistics, which is published on your listing.

Also, there is a difference between an inquiry and a booking request. As long as you respond to an inquiry in a timely manner, you don’t have to do anything further, e.g. you don’t have to accept or decline. I’m not sure which one you got, but just keep that difference in mind.